Indian Grinding Rock State Park

In the Sierra Nevada foothills, eight miles east of Jackson, rests evidence of the peaceful life of the Miwok Indians. It is a valley with large open meadows and tall valley oaks that once provided the native Americans of this area with ample supplies of acorns. The attraction of this state park, the grinding rock, is an outcropping of marbleized limestone with some 1,185 mortar holes — the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America. Although there is a fence around it, a wooden pier (for lack of a better word) allows you to walk over part of the rock to get a good view of the depth of the mortar holes.

Near the parking lot is a two-story museum that has been designed to reflect the architecture of the traditional roundhouse. Though closed when I visited, I understand inside there are displays of technology and crafts of the Miwok and other Sierra Nevada native American groups.

Immediately visible from the grinding rock is a small collection of teepees made of bark and grapevines.  Farther out is a hun’ge or roundhouse. The sacred hun’ge was the community center for dances, meetings, social gatherings, and religious ceremonies.  Though this Miwok village is a recreation, the meeting  house was well made and clearly could hold many large families.

Across from the hun’ge is a large field, used even today as a playing field during living history events. Two trails are available to lead you around the woods, one is a half-mile and one a mile long. At the head of the trails, you can pick up a brochure that identifies particular local plants and what they were used for by the indigenous people.

You can camp in the U’macha’tam’ma’ sites (bark houses to the north). Seven bark houses, each one suitable for up to six people, have been constructed in a secluded area of the park. Budget cutbacks have closed this campground for a while, but hopefully the closure is only temporary. My understanding is that it is indeed primitive, as in no running water available.